


Compliments

by telescopenights



Series: How Bucky Met Tony [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Restaurant, Dramatic Tony Stark, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, M/M, Meet-Cute, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-03
Updated: 2020-01-03
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:40:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22096534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telescopenights/pseuds/telescopenights
Summary: In which Tony and Bucky think the other is cute but neither dares to say so.orThe story of how Tony ends up going to the same restaurant and ordering the same thing for three days straight.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark
Series: How Bucky Met Tony [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1590457
Comments: 4
Kudos: 90





	Compliments

**Author's Note:**

> Would love any comments you might have about this fic! Happy reading!

The tinkling of a bell alerts the staff of Shield’s Ramen to a new customer but its weak chime is drowned out by the sea of voices in the crowded restaurant. 

“Who’s got the Tonkotsu Ramen? Tonkotsu Ramen?” Bucky’s voice is heard above the crowd’s as he asks the people sitting at the bar area of the restaurant while squinting at the scribbled order in one hand and balancing a large steaming bowl of noodles in the other.  _ Damnit Stevie the restaurant is completely full, you gotta be more specific than “bar” when you write your orders, _ he internally grumbles. 

A hand shoots into the air. “Is that number five?” 

“Yes, that’s yours!” Bucky shouts and begins to move over to the guy who raised his hand.  _ Wow he’s pretty _ , Bucky can’t help but think as he approaches the doe-eyed guy who looks no older than 21. Pretty boy, as Bucky creatively nicknames him, makes space on the limited countertop of the bar by removing his arms off the surface where he had been leaning and pulling them close to his body instead. That’s when Bucky spots his nails which have been painted a simple black. 

Bucky places the oversized bowl of noodles in front of him. “There’s your Tonkotsu Ramen, sir.” He’s about to leave pretty boy to his meal, but for reasons unbeknownst to even Bucky himself, he adds, “nice nails,” with a smile before returning to behind the counter to collect the next order. He hears a hesitant “oh...thank you” from behind him as he walks away and smiles a little.

***

Tony is a little confused. It was nice that someone thought his nails were nice but he still wasn’t too sure what the intent behind the compliment was. Was it a genuine compliment or was the waiter just a sarcastic bigoted douche who just  _ had _ to call out a guy wearing nail polish? And he didn’t catch the waiter’s face as he said it so he can’t say for sure if it’s the former or the latter.

The nail polish was kinda new too so there wasn’t any data for him to base his deductions off. He had accidentally dropped a wrench on some of his fingers while working in the workshop last night  _ (thanks Dum-E for ramming into me when I ask you to just pass me something) _ but the nails hadn’t broken by some strange stroke of luck. There was, however, some awful bruising under the nails and Pepper had happened to be going for her self-care day manicure session today so Tony decided to join along to cover up the bruising. And he kinda really liked it. Of course, chances were that the polish would chip off within the next week given his demanding work in the workshop but for now, they were still a neat and uniform coat of black with a coat of clear on top, giving it a shiny appearance. 

Anyway, back to waiter dude who is called James according to his nametag which Tony manages a glimpse at while he runs around fulfilling orders. Tony tries to observe him as he eats, seeing if he maybe smiles in his direction, which would confirm that it was most likely a compliment, or if he scowls at him instead, which would indicate he was most likely a douche. But the restaurant is packed with people, seeing as it is a Saturday night so he doesn’t get to make eye contact with James again. His last chance is when he asked for the check but a blond haired waiter named Steve settles it with him instead.

Most normal people would just forget about it and move on with their lives, shuffling the compliment to the back of their memories, a fleeting incident that will ultimately be lost to time. But Tony is not “most normal people”. Blame it on his personality or the fact that he has slept a grand total of three hours the past two days, but he is determined to figure out if James was being nice or if he was secretly a douche. And as an engineer, Tony knows that in order to solve a problem, he needs to have some data first before formulating the answer, and he knows just how to get the data for this particular problem of his.

***

The next day, Tony is back at the ramen restaurant for dinner. But as part of his genius plan, he decides to come later. The restaurant closes at 9 PM and the last order is at 8:30PM so Tony comes in at 8:15 PM. That way he can possibly get 45 whole minutes of “data collection” to solve his problem. Besides, it is winter in New York and hot ramen is a comforting meal to have when it is constantly snowing outside. He situates himself at the bar again, removing his coat and shoving it into the box under the stool before sitting down and immediately looking out for the James. It wasn’t too hard, there had only been two waiters serving the restaurant yesterday, one being the dark-haired one and one being the blondie who passed him his check. And  _ holy shit James was coming right at him _ . 

“Back again so soon?” he asks, passing Tony a menu, smiling.

_ Fuck what do I say? Holy crap his eyes are so blue. Wait I need to respond. _ “Uh yeah...cos it’s winter and freezing so uh...hot ramen! Nice to have when it’s so cold out,” Tony responds, inwardly cringing at his lack of coherence.

James just smiles at him and nods. “Business is usually good in winter. Anyway, just let me know when you’re ready to order.” With that, he turns away and goes off to serve another table.

***

“Fuck Stevie he’s here again. Pretty boy came again,” Bucky hisses at Steve who was currently waiting for Sam to finish with his order.

“You mean ‘the cutie with the big brown eyes you could melt looking at and classy black nails’ that you wouldn’t shut up about yesterday?” Steve teases.

“Haha very funny but yes he’s here and would you keep it down? He’s gonna hear us,” Bucky warns, seeing as they were standing at the end of the bar and Tony sitting near the middle.

“Why don’t you ask for his number?”

“What the hell Steve I just think he’s cute. You don’t ask every cute person for their number. That would be weird.”

“Yeah but I think he thinks you’re cute too,” Steve replies wryly, nodding in Tony’s direction.

Bucky looks up from the computer where he was keying in each customer’s order and catches Tony staring straight at him. The sudden eye contact makes a faint red blush spread over Tony’s cheeks and he immediately averts his eyes, turning his attention back to the menu. A smile begins to tug at the corners of Bucky’s lips but before Steve gets too smug, he waves it off with a blasé “yeah sure”.

*** 

One of the top ten most embarrassing things to happen in public is without a doubt being caught staring at a stranger by said stranger. Which is exactly what had just happened to Tony. Suddenly very eager for the dinner to be over, Tony raises his hand to order, quickly glancing through the menu before deciding to order the same thing. 

James approaches him again, giving him a friendly smile though Tony is sure that any more eye contact and he might actually start wilting in his seat.

“What would you like to have today?”

“The same as yesterday the...uh...Tonkotsu Ramen? Please.” 

“Anything else?”

Tony shakes his head. James nods and jots it down, flashing him another smile before going off to submit the order. 

As Tony sits and stews over being caught staring, he cringes more with each time he replays the scene in his head. He also decides that maybe it was time he should pop some melatonin and crash properly. At least then he would stop coming up with strange solutions to strange problems that other people wouldn’t even think twice about. Actually it wasn’t even a problem. Tony was just thinking too much about a compliment for fuck’s sake. James didn’t even say it snarkily and yet here he was, trying to suss out if he was being genuine or sarcastic when most people would just accept the compliment and move on. _ That’s it, _ Tony decides silently, _ enough ramen for the year. I’m not coming back till next winter. Screw the problem, I don’t need to know if he’s being nice or if he’s a secret douche.  _

His ramen comes and James leaves it in front of him with another friendly smile and an “enjoy your meal!” No compliment today. Tony mutters a polite “thanks” and gets on with eating his noodles. He eats with greater haste today even though he isn’t as hungry as he was yesterday, nor is the restaurant as busy so he could technically stay there longer. But he doesn’t want to. Sighing into his bowl, Tony checks his watch to find that he had finished his dinner in fifteen minutes.

***

“Stevie did you see what’s hanging on his shirt?” Bucky asks under his breath as he tabulates the check for another customer.

“Is there any reason why I should have?” Steve asks in return, mildly amused.

“He wears glasses! God I bet he’d look so fuckin’ cute with them on.”

“Wow, I never realised just how adorable myopia is!” Steve replies sarcastically. Then, “hey, look I think he’s done.”

And sure enough, pretty boy was raising his hand and gesturing to Bucky, mouthing “check” at him.  _ Huh, maybe he’s in a rush today. _ Bucky nods at pretty boy and prints out his check, walking over briskly to pass it to him. He barely looks at Bucky but gives him a warm enough smile and pays for his meal. As pretty boy puts his coat on, Bucky passes him his receipt and says an obligatory “Thank you for dining with us! Please come again soon!” But for reasons unbeknownst to him once again, Bucky can’t seem to walk away without adding with a smile, “nice glasses.”

***

Tony is a little in shock. Okay now he has data to solve the problem and the answer is James is not a douche and he was genuinely complimenting Tony’s nails yesterday.  _ After all, you wouldn’t compliment someone again if you were actually a bigoted asshole who hated nail polish on guys, right? Right. _ Now Tony should be satisfied and content that the problem is solved and these past two days of investigations can be put behind him. But as Tony walks back to his apartment, he gets a little annoyed with his brain for coming up with another problem to solve. And that problem is that now he kinda really wanted to see James again.

What kind of waiter would compliment a customer like that? Once and in passing was understandable but two days in a row on two separate things? And based on Tony’s observations, he didn’t appear compliment anyone else, even the really pretty girl sitting two seats away from Tony who he was sure had way prettier nails than he did. So it definitely wasn’t just great customer service. Was James hitting on him? Unfortunately, all his brain is supplying him with is “eat ramen again tomorrow!” which Tony is sure was a bad idea.  _ God why am I so dramatic? He said two nice things about me and now I wanna go back just to see if he’ll do it a third time. Well but twice is a coincidence and three times is a pattern so technically I do need more data......wait no no no, enough ramen for this winter. Tomorrow I’m gonna order in pizza and stay far far away from Shield’s. _

***

“You like our ramen that much huh?” Bucky was a little amused to see pretty boy back again but he isn’t complaining. He is really pretty. And today he looks absolutely adorable in his gray hoodie and sweats. Plus if he was going to become a regular then Bucky was going to be getting way more enthusiastic about showing up to work. 

“Uh yeah, just been really craving ramen lately I guess,” pretty boy replies sheepishly.

Taking off his coat and sitting on the same stool as from the past two days, he accepts the menu from Bucky and browses. “Call me when you’re ready,” he says and leaves pretty boy to his browsing.

He’s about to attend to another table of customers who are ready to order when Steve abruptly pulls him to the side. “Buck he’s here for the third day in a row. Come on, he’s probably coming back for you or something. Go out there and shoot your shot.”

Bucky wrinkles his nose in disagreement. “He said he’s been craving ramen Stevie, you can’t jump to that conclusion like that.” With that, he quickly walks to the table that was ready to order before Steve can argue with him.

Steve persists as Bucky is keying in the table’s order. “Okay if he’s here to satisfy his craving for ramen as you claim, then why is he ogling at you as you walk around?”

Upon hearing that, Bucky can’t help but whip his head around and look for pretty boy. And sure enough, he was staring straight at Bucky. But this time, despite the slight blush, he doesn’t look away. He does, however, raise his hand and something he didn’t even know was there deflates in Bucky. “Cos he wants to order his dinner Stevie.”

***

_ Wow I have got to stare more discreetly if I wanna keep this up _ . Getting caught staring two days in a row isn’t a particularly stealthy move but no worries as crisis is averted since Tony raises his hand upon being caught staring and pretends like he is ready to order. But of course, he isn’t. Which is why he ends up ordering the same thing again.

“Uh can I have the tonkotsu ramen again please?” he asks James somewhat shyly.

James cracks a smile at that. “Of course. I’ll bring it to you in a while. Anything else today?”

“Nope, I’m good. Thanks.”

A quick nod and smile and James is off again. Tony kinda wants to congratulate himself for being so smooth today. 

The ramen arrives uneventfully and Tony eats in silence as he observes people in the restaurant. More often than not though, Tony’s eyes are fixated on James and his brain will not stop asking “is he gonna say something?”. Honestly speaking, he is a little disappointed that James had not said anything special to him when he ordered his food or when his food arrived. But yesterday he said it when giving Tony the check so maybe that would be the case for today too.

He eats slowly today, catching little glances of James as he walks around, attending to various customers. At the same time, he let his imagination run a little wild, thinking of all the possible things James might say to Tony later when the meal is over. He feels a little stupid thinking of all these hypotheticals but in the privacy of his own mind at least there isn’t anyone to judge.

Snapping out of his daze when he hears the bell of the restaurant ring lightly, Tony realises that he’s one of the last people left in the restaurant. He checks his watch and sees that it’s already 8:55PM, meaning that the restaurant was closing in 5 minutes. He quickly finishes the last bit of his noodles. Raising his hand, Tony makes eye contact with James and mimics signing.  _ Alright, now for data set number three. _ But the check comes and Tony pays without anything outstanding occuring. James comes back with his receipt and stands a little closer than usual but Tony concludes that it’s just so that the other waiter, Steve, can squeeze past them in the narrow aisle to get to another customer.

After putting on his coat and reaching the door, Tony risks one last look back at James but all he does is raise a hand to say goodbye and gives Tony same friendly smile. Tony smiles back and walks out into the winter night. 

_ Huh, so now what? _ James complimented him and only him as far as he could tell for two consecutive days but not on the third day. Was that a coincidence then?  _ Damn, maybe I was being too dramatic and overthinking it all.  _ Tony tries not to feel too disheartened but fails at it.

It’s a Monday night so he stops by the express supermarket near his apartment to stock up on some basic groceries and snacks for the week. It takes longer than usual though, largely because Tony spends some time contemplating buying ice cream as a snack for the walk home. After paying for his groceries sans ice cream, he zips his coat up and walks out of the warmth of the shop and straight into someone.

***

“Woah sorry...hey it’s you.” Bucky can’t help but let a wide smile take over his face. He tries to school his expression but he’s never had very good self-control.

Pretty boy looks up and to Bucky’s delight, he looks rather happy to be bumping into him too.

“Hey! Yeah it’s me...I’m Tony by the way.” Tony says, extending his free hand to shake Bucky’s. Now pretty boy had a name and the dopey grin on Bucky’s face stayed there a little longer because of that thought.

“Sorry for bumping into you like that, Tony,” Bucky tries out, instantly approving of the easy way Tony’s name rolls off his tongue.

“Oh, no! No, that’s on me, I wasn’t watching where I was going, James” Tony says, as if he had suddenly remembered his manners. 

“Oh call me Bucky, only my bosses call me James.”

“Okay, Bucky.”

They stand in silence for a while and it’s getting awkward and Bucky’s about to break it by saying goodbye when Tony asks, “Why didn’t you compliment me today?”

He looks absolutely horrified and slaps his free hand over his mouth, eyes widening in shock.  _ What the hell is wrong with me _ ? Tony panics internally. Bucky’s eyes widen too but his are laced with more hope rather than shock.  _ He wants me to compliment him? He likes me complimenting him? _ Bucky doesn’t really know how to process this but just as he decides what to respond, Tony speaks first.

“I…...I mean...uh...okay this is gonna sound really crazy but just bear with me okay?” Tony looks like he wants the earth to swallow him whole but Bucky remains silent and nods.

“When I ate at Shield’s on Saturday you said ‘nice nails’ and I couldn’t tell if you were being genuinely nice or if you were being a sarcastic asshole about guys wearing nail polish. Then yesterday you said ‘nice glasses’ so I knew you were being nice on Friday. But that also meant that you complimented me for two days in a row for no reason and iwaskindawonderingifyouweremaybehittingonme?” Tony rushes the last bit out but Bucky hears it loud and clear and his heart instantly floats.  _ Oh my god he wants me to hit on him...he likes me. _

The smile on Bucky’s face only gets brighter after hearing that and the corner of his eyes crinkle up as it does. “I actually did want to compliment you today but I didn’t know how to without coming off as creepy? Cos when I stood a little closer to you just now so that Stevie could pass through, I uh actually smelt your shampoo. But I couldn’t really say ‘nice shampoo’ without sounding like an absolute creep so I didn’t.”

“Then why are you saying this now?” _ Tony Stark do you know how to speak like a normal human being? Holy crap get it together! _

Bucky smiles. “Cos I think you want me to hit on you. And I do.”

“Oh.”

Tony finally lets a smile break through his furrowed brows and it’s one of the most gorgeous sights Bucky has ever seen. Tony is absolutely stunning when he’s smiling uncontrollably, shy but with a little more daring now. Bucky tells him such and is rewarded by that lovely lovely blush.

“Can I get your number, Tony? And maybe we can meet up somewhere that’s not my job.”

“Yeah, you can,” Tony replies softly, still a little in awe of how the situation turned out. He keys his number into Bucky’s phone and feels his heart clench when Bucky smiles at him with that radiant grin of his.

“Well then, I’ll text you, Tony.”

“Looking forward to it.”

***

  
  



End file.
